I am Raven
by lovelyindeed
Summary: A look at Raven. Set in the future. RaeBB. Romance...The story is better than the description.


One-shot Teen Titans fic, all about my favorite character, Raven!

Disclaimer: If I owned Teen Titans, I wouldn't bother with writing Fanfictions about it. It's not mine!

_I am Raven_

I am Raven.

Born of a demon and angel, I am darkness and I am night. Day hides within my soul, but it cannot be unleashed, cannot be set free, for it is held captive in a cage of hatred and evil.

It cannot be set free, not even for you, Beast Boy.

I…cannot love.

It's been six years since the death of Slade, and all of us have changed.

Robin has become Night Wing, strong, dark, and silent. Starfire has found hidden powers within herself, the ability to take the blasts of green energy she shoots from her hands and eyes and make them take form, much like Green Lantern can with his ring. Night Wing and Starfire are courting each other. Cyborg has found perfect balance between man and machine, and though his body bulges with more and more muscle, his hard lined but caring face remains the same. I managed to reach through the stone she was imprisoned in and awaken Terra's spirit, and so she lives to this day. She has complete power and control over her manipulation of rock now. Cyborg and Terra have been in love for a long time as well.

And Beast Boy—you have become the Beast, no longer a boy or a child. You have shed your green boundaries, and are able to perfectly metamorphose into any living creature. You have also developed the ability to mix animal parts together to maximize your efficiency. You've grown tall and robust, with black hair and sky blue eyes.

I, too, have changed. I've never had to cut my hair in the past before (I sprung out of my mother's head, resulting in her death, full-sized and looking very much the same as I do now, today) it always stayed the same length. But now it falls in long purple curled tresses to the middle of my back. A silver tiara graces my forehead. My robes have gone from purple to an evasive purple so dark that it is nearly black.

This is me today, a near-demon. I am evil. A dark spirit hides within my soul, and no matter how I try to suppress it, it still rages within me, and every day I can feel my control slipping just a bit more.

At one point I thought I loved a man trapped in the pages of a book, but he was really a dragon tricking me, seducing me with words of understanding and evil to help me set him free from his prison. He was a liar, and that scarred me, broke my already broken soul. And even in those days of bliss, I never was completely in love. It was an infatuation.

Beast, all I can feel for you is infatuation. And this would break your heart.

I watch you go now, eyes hollow and empty because I rejected your love. And you kept saying those words over and over again, "Raven, I know you love me back, I can see it in your eyes! Why do you reject me?"

And to this and all, I had no reply but, "I cannot love."

I cannot love because demons cannot love! Beast, why can't you see this? Why do you torment a dark soul?

Beast…I'm sorry. I cannot love you as Starfire loves Night Wing, or as Terra loves Cyborg.

Can't you see? I'm a demon. A demon, a cursed, accursed, demon.

And the only way for me to overcome the darkness—I could never explain to you, because it would break your heart. And even I don't know if I'm ready to do so, or even able to do so. The struggle would be immense…

The steel door of my room slides open, and before you step outside, you whisper a few words to break my heart and shake my soul.

"I still love you, Raven. And I always will."

"Wait for me…" I say softly before I can stop myself.

Beast turns around abruptly, and stares deep into my eyes.

"What?"

"Wait for me," I repeat softly, and then gently push him out of my door with a wave of my hand and a push of magic.

……..

"Titans, go!" Night Wing roars, pointing at Gemini, our latest and greatest foe.

We all rush to attack him, but his robotic minions fly in from all directions and our formation is destroyed. Everyone is fighting, blood flies. We are extremely outnumbered, but fight valiantly.

I roar and change quickly from animal to animal, fighting with the strength of twenty men, when I suddenly glance up from the sparking robot I'd been beating to see how Raven is doing. My heart nearly stops when I see a man bash her over the head with a heavy crate, and with a roar I dash up to defend her…

But suddenly my limbs feel heavy and my eyes are slowly closing, I feel drugged and stupid, as everything begins to go black. Just before I totally lose consciousness, I hear Gemini's hated, cold, high-pitched voice saying, "That's right, you beast. Sleep."

I awake, head feeling stuffed with cotton and body immensely heavy. I slowly realize my surroundings—I'm in a dimly lit room, the sole light hanging over my head and bathing me in white light. Everything else is dark. I'm bound to a wooden chair, hands and feet, and there's something on my temple.

Coming to my senses, I quickly try to morph into a Tyrannosaurus Rex and break out of the feeble bonds of the ropes, but instead I'm filled with immense pain as the contraption on my temple electrocutes me.

"Painful, isn't it, Beast? To try and be who you really are, but to be stopped by something so small and meager? You, a member of the loathsome _Titans_ have been a rock in my shoe. You and the rest of your do-good little partners. Time and time again I have been thwarted by you little adolescents. And now, it's time for me to break out of my annoying little bounds. Don't you feel honored? You'll be the first to die."

I gnash my teeth violently, an animalistic anger rising quickly in my chest.

"Don't mess with me now, Gemini. Or I'll rip you from limb to limb. I don't have to be an animal to break out of this damned chair!" I struggle violently against the ropes, but realize that they have been magicked firmly in place. I am powerless, immobile. Defenseless before this madman magician mastermind villain.

"Ha-ha-ha," his laugh is colder than ice. "Silly _beast_. Silly _animal_. Now, don't feel too honored that you'll be the first to go. I picked you to die first because I noticed that you were feeling especially emotionally unstable today, and they're just _so much_ more fun to destroy when they're already feeling down."

My heart thuds faster and faster. How could he have known how upset I was over Raven's rejecting my love? Was this really the end?

"Because you're easier to read then a book, that's why. And yes, this is the end!" Gemini hisses, and I'm struck by fear and panic as I realize he's been reading my mind.

"You may destroy me, but you'll never be able to destroy the Titans!" I cry out in anguish, rebellion pounding adrenaline through my veins.

"Pathetic creature, take a look at how well your beloved Titans are doing now!" he laughs, and creates a magical mirror out of thin air, where I'm able to see my fellow team mates.

Night Wing...oh no, they'd forced him to surrender by placing a pistol to Starfire's temple and threatening to fire!

And Cyborg was being held in a similar position under threat of Terra's death!

But…where was Raven?

The mirror changes scenes, and my worst fears are confirmed as my world stops spinning—Raven. Lying on the ground. In a pool of black blood.

"NO!" I scream and struggle so violently against my bonds that the chair falls forwards on the ground and I scrape my face. "YOU DEMON! YOU KILLED HER! YOUR GODDAMNED MINIONS KILLED HER! I'LL KILL YOU IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!"

Gemini laughs in that horrible, high-pitched nasal way of his.

"It hurts, doesn't it, Beast, to see the thing you love most snatched away form you as you watch helplessly? Do you see now how I felt when you Titans killed my one and only love, Slade?"

"You're sick!" I roar from my place on the ground, tears blinding me as my heart breaks in two for my lost love, my dear, sweet Raven.

"No. I'm perfectly sane. You just drove me to extreme measures. Now you and all your pathetic friends are going to pay for what you did to me—and what you did to my love, my one and only," Gemini whispers softly as he slowly walks closer and closer to me.

"Fuck you," I spit.

"Fool! Your death has come!" he roars, and whips out his wand like a dagger.

"Greskarzavos!"

A blinding jet of red light speeds towards me, and I can do nothing but watch in shock as my death comes flying towards me like an airplane.

"NO! DECESKA!"

A flash of black and purple suddenly flashes before my eyes, and there's a blinding flash of red.

The only way to kill him would be by trickery.

I realized he took Beast moments after the forced surrender of Night Wing and Cyborg, and quickly formed a double of myself, blood-covered, to lie on the floor.

I then melted into the floors and quickly hid within the walls, and began searching desperately for Beast.

Through my telepathic powers, I reached into the eyes of Beast and saw that he was being held captive in some kind of dark warehouse, and Gemini was with him. I couldn't risk giving away to Gemini that I was alive, so I left without sign to Beast that I was still alive.

Quickly I teleported myself to the room, only to see Gemini casting a fatal spell upon Beast. Before I knew what I was doing, I flung myself in front of the fatal beam, while casting my own dark spell of death.

"NO! DECESKA!"

And now, the world is quickly dimming away, and I can feel my life slowly leaving my body. I can tell from the loss of magical aura in the room that my killing curse upon Gemini was successful. His robots will droop to the ground, harmless, and the Titans will be safe.

I can now leave in peace.

"Raven…NO!" I roar, pain exploding in my chest as everything becomes clear. The dead figure on the ground hadn't been Raven, but an imitation to fool Gemini. She'd used the trick before, but I lost my head in the moment of panic.

I struggle against the ropes and they come free this time, because her spell was successful—Gemini is dead. And now all the things his dark magic had influenced have been sapped of their power. Ripping the steel contraption off of my head, I run to the pale, beautiful form on the ground.

I grasp her close to my body, desperately feeling for a pulse and finding none as I hold her in my arms.

Tears flow down my face as my mind spins, "Raven, why would you do that? Why would you do this to me! Don't you know it would have been better for me to just die than to live without you?"

I bury my face into her hair and let lose all my sorrow and pain through my endless tears.

"Why, my love…why…"

A teardrop falls from the tip of my nose onto her eyelid as I gaze upon her beautiful face—and suddenly her eyelid gently flutters.

I shake my head in disbelief—it's impossible! Perhaps I'm going mad with pain, hallucinating.

But then her body grows incredibly hot, so hot that I let her go in surprise. I could just hit myself! Guilt and panic rise up in me, but instead of falling to the ground, her body _floats up_ until it's hovering about three feet in the air.

I gasp in surprise and back off as wave after wave of heat emanates off of her, and now her body is twisting and contorting, as if she's being jerked around like some sick sort of marionette.

_Everything's black, everything's dark. _

_But then I see a light in the distance, and I run towards it as quickly as possible, knowing that it's my only way out of this darkness that consumes my soul._

_I'm almost at the light, and all that stands between us is a flight of stairs. I begin to run up it and feel a tad bit of wetness on my left eyelid, and then warmth pulsing through my body._

_I'm almost at the top and now, when suddenly there's something strong, fierce, and dark holding my leg, dragging me back down into the darkness!_

_I gasp and scream, "FATHER!"_

"Oh my god," I whisper softly to myself as my beloved suddenly begins to scream and wail, her arms jerking more rapidly and frenziedly then before.

"Raven! Come back to me!" I cry out in anguish, and run towards the body, only to be pushed back by a wave of magic and heat.

_"Let me go, foul beast! I will not be a part of your evil anymore!" I scream, and thrash wildly to make it up those last few steps. But I'm beginning to lose hope; he's so strong, so strong._

_"Don't resist me, silly fool. You, my daughter, will always be mine. Will always be evil. There's no hope for you, no turning to goodness. You can never be good!"_

"Raven! Come back to me!"

_"Beast?"__ I gasp in amazement. I clearly heard his voice from the light! I struggle twice as hard against my father, but his grip is strong and he is relentless. I slip down two stairs._

_"Trigon!__ You let her be!"_

_Both I and my father look up at the same time, and our expressions hold similar surprise as we behold a heavenly figure, bathed in light, who climbed out of the light._

_"Mother…" I whisper softly, instantly knowing that this was my mother, who had been raped by Trigon, but had had the strength and love to not have an abortion and give me a chance to live._

_"We had a deal, Trigon. She would live her first life as almost completely a demon, and then if she managed to sacrifice herself selflessly for a loved one, she would be able to resurrect, cleansed of all your evil! Let her go, foul demon!"_

_Trigon__ hisses and glares at my mother._

_"Stupid bitch!__ She's mine, all mine, and she always will be mine! She is evil, down to her very core, and cannot keep up this façade of goodness much longer! Once I drag her with me down to the depths of hell, we will take over the living world together and wreak havoc on mankind, and she shall be my queen of the world and bare our children, lords of evil!"_

_"NEVER!" screams mother, and she hurls a flash of light so bright that it momentarily blinds my father. "Run to the light, Raven, run to the light! Don't look back!"_

_I heed her words and run as quickly as I can, crying as I stumble up those last few stairs, and finally, at the top, I look back once, and meet eyes with the woman who is my mother, who I've loved all my life but have never known._

_"Run…" she repeats as she wrestles my father and they roll down the stairs into the abyss._

_Tears flowing down my cheeks, I step through the light…_

Her body is suddenly glowing!

I gasp in surprise as her whole body glows with a golden light, and I can feel a blast of strong magic, and suddenly, the glowing light fades, and Raven slowly, gracefully, falls to the ground.

I run to her and gasp in surprise—her skin is still as pale as ever, but now instead of a bluish tinge, it is a whitish-pink color, and full of life. Her cheeks blush red and her lips are plump and full as well. The red gem in the middle of her forehead has turned a beautiful cerulean blue.

And most stunningly, her robes suddenly turned a pure white color.

"Raven…" I say in wonder as I gather her into my arms. She's so warm, and I can feel a pulse.

Her eyes gently flutter open.

"Beast," she says softly, her eyes full of…could it be…love?

"I—I—I thought I'd lost you…" I say, my heart suddenly swollen with love and relief as I draw her close to my body, ignoring the fact that she might somehow snap back into her old self and push me away from her.

But…she embraces me.

"Beast, everything's going to be okay now. I've shed my darker side. I can now love."

I look deep into her eyes, at a loss for words. Did she just say what I think she said?

"Did you…"

She cuts me off with a kiss.

My name is Raven.

Born of a demon and an angel, I have overcome my darker side, and am free to love and be loved.

Because of my love for Beast, and because of my mother's love for me, because that could not be suppressed, not even by my darkness.

And now I am free.

Thanks for reading! Please review!

Note: Raven does not lose her magical powers after destroying her evil side.


End file.
